TOUR: Village Barn Fresh Market - Middle Village, NY

Village Barn Fresh Market

Owner: Bill Fani

Opened: 2016

Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group

Location: 80-05 Caldwell Ave, Middle Village, NY

Photographed: July 2018

Jumping right into our Middle Village stores with this store right near the middle of what felt to me like a central area. I don't know Middle Village well enough to know whether this truly is like a downtown area, but it sure is easy to forget that you're in basically the center of Queens when you arrive here in Middle Village. It's a pleasant, low-key, and relaxed neighborhood that certainly feels more suburban than most. And it has two supermarkets diagonally across the street from each other, a Met Foods and this Village Barn, both owned by Bill Fani's company Food Connection. Food Connection also owns two Met Foods on Staten Island. Fani purchased the store back in 2016 and gut-renovated it, bringing the focus more towards upscale, gourmet, and natural products.

Though it's a very small store at just under 10,000 square feet, it offers an ample selection. Produce is displayed in an addition to the store in the main building on the parking lot side.

So you do have a two-aisle dead end produce area in an awkward outside space, but selection is maximized everywhere you look.

And all of the fixtures here (and throughout the store, by the way) are brand-new. I am struggling quite a bit to remember the layout specifically, though I believe meats are in the first aisle once you enter the main section.

Again, all the fixtures are brand-new including the refrigerator cases and the shelving. It's possible the flooring is older, but I doubt it. The store looks great.

The deli department I believe is on the back wall, but there isn't much space around it. So prepared foods in a grab-and-go case are displayed in the first aisle. Very nice selection!

There's a heavy emphasis on the fresh and prepared foods, which as we'll see is pretty different from the Met Foods across the street. The bakery is tucked away in the back corner.

Grocery aisles look great - nicely stocked, excellent selection of natural and organic, and beautiful shelving.

The flooring is looking a little older in this shot, but definitely not anything too awful.

You can see some of the more upscale and natural options in the cleaning products aisle.

Awesome aisle markers -- I love the way they follow the same design as the exterior of the building.

Dairy and frozen in the last aisle! It's kind of crazy that this store only has six aisles, since they pack so much into a very small space.

It never seems to be long before I eat again! That about wraps up our look at the Village Barn Fresh Market, with Met Foods coming up next over on The Market Report!